The Matador

The Matador stars with Pierce Brosnan waking up with a naked woman in bed, and then kicks into A Town Called Malice. You just know the film is going to be fun. Later in the film, Asia's Heat of the Moment comes up. It ends with The Killers' All These Things I've Done, and then El Matador by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, the perfect music to end a film with this title. The movie is goofy fun. Brosnan is really just completely awesome. If he hadn't been Bond, he probably wouldn't have gotten this film, but man, he is so much more than Bond, or a dashing man trying to steal away Robin Williams's wife in Mrs. Doubtfire (only good for David Cross's Tobias Funke's Mrs. Featherbottom). Greg Kinnear, Hope Davis, and Philip Baker Hall are all good in their roles, as well, even as they're not nearly as flashy. Writer-director Richard Shepard, who I'd never heard of until I went to the IMDB for the film, apparently directed some (reportedly terrible) softcore porn for Playboy in the 90s, and after this film two years ago, directed the pilots for both Criminal Minds and Ugly Betty. I'm not sure which makes me respect him less.

The Man Who Never Was & The Host

The Man Who Never Was is a film about Operation Mincemeat, the successful plan to convince the Germans that they weren't going to invade Sicily and were going to invade Greece or Sardinia. For some reason, Hitler bought it, maybe because he was frickin' insane. It is a film that I'm surprised I hadn't seen before, although I may have. Movies I used to watch a lot as a youngin tend to blur in my mind, unless I watched them multiple times (thank you The Longest Day and Bedknobs and Broomsticks), so I may have gotten this confused with Code Name: Emerald, a non-true story about trying to rescue/kill someone who knows about D-Day. I vaguely recalled the ending of that film, but I think I put the rest of the plot of this into that. My brain makes little to no sense some times. Back to the film. It's a little film, with little showy acting (except from Gloria Grahame), no showy camera tricks, and a very simple plot: convince the Germans a man who doesn't exist exists. That the film is so simple is the best aspect of the film. It allows the tension to build, and the audience (or at least me, and I assume most others watching) wonders just how the Germans will treat all of this. Of course, the fact that it's based on a true story means that you know how it will end, and the one little twist is fairly clearly telegraphed early on.

The Host is a justly praised monster film from Korea, from the director of the very good Memories of Murder. This film is too long, though, and drags considerably in the middle, along with not being entirely consistent from a time standpoint. It's never clear how long it has been from the beginning of the film to the end. It makes little to no sense as things seem to have taken days and days, while there is no food. This gaping plot hole aside, it's still not nearly as good as it was made out to be. The sense of humor is lacking, as well, and I just got a feeling that the film should have been better. It is, however, full of excellent set pieces, especially the opening attack scene, far more impressive because the monster is never hidden, it's seen full-body in bright daylight. And it is also quite a few metaphors. As in, the monster was created by pollution, the American military, and it's also a big vagina dentata. Well, actually, when you think about it, most monsters out there that eat people are vagina dentata. Men are just generally afraid of that which they don't have. Or, they're afraid of what they might lose. The negatives (of which there are a few) are not enough to detract from the good points, although this doesn't entirely convey that point.

Andromedia, Manhattan Murder Mystery, & Volver

Andromedia is probably the strangest "Let's promote a band" film since Head. But at least that one had lots of music from the band in it. This just had one Speed song, and one Da Pump music video. Yeah... Well, I just had to see this film, because it's an extremely cheesy "girl dies and is resurrected as an artificial intelligence while a yakuza, her half-brother, and a crazy Christopher Doyle (?!) try to steal the technology from her boyfriend" film. And since it's a Takashi Miike film it's even stranger than that description would make it seem to be. The acting is horrendous from everyone, the film frequently looks like crap, it was hard to understand the spoken English because it was sometimes overdubbed with Japanese at the same time, and the boyfriend was indestructible. It's so goofily stupid it almost works. But it doesn't. It's still cheezy.

Manhattan Murder Mystery is famous for the Wagner lines, and also for being the first film post-Mia for Allen. It also has a pretty good cast, with Woody, Diane Keaton, Ron Rifkin, Joy Behar (somehow far less annoying than I expect every time), Alan Alda, and Anjelica Huston. It unfortunately ahs Zach Braff as well, although it's a very minor part, and I didn't even recognize him. It is a Woody Allen film, so maybe we can blame Woody for The Shins being bad? Wait, I can actually blame Woody for lots of stuff far more important than some middling indie band not being interesting anymore. That said, it's actually fairly enjoyable, and there are some very funny lines (not just the aforementioned Wagnerisms), so it's better than I was hoping.

Volver just says one thing to me: don't let Penelope Cruz act in Hollywood films. She's so damn good in her Spanish films that it's a shame she doesn't just make them. Yeah, I'm a total Almodovar fanboy, maybe because he's one of the few directors out there who consistently makes amazing films with strong female characters. Except for Bad Education, which I didn't like that much anyway. This one is almost as good as his best, even if it steals a plot from The Flower of My Secret, but the acting is uniformly excellent from the women. The men are, of course, creepy or there only for the plot needs. It's nice to see a film that's the opposite of most. And I also want to put in a plug for the awesomeness that is Bluray. And the gorgeousness that is the menu and the end credits. Way to go the extra mile and be impressive rather than just bland. Now all I need is a TV and setup that allows me to enjoy the pretty pictures and sounds to go along with the nice presentation.

Metric at 9:30 9/20

Being a huge fan of Metric for a little over a year (after seeing Clean due to my long standing interest in watching everything Maggie Cheung has ever done), but having heard (and liked, but not enough to recognize songs apparently) of the band since a little before Live It Out came out, I had never seen them live. Mainly due to my dislike of going to shows in general, but also because I didn't know anyone who would go with me. But that having been fixed (although not nearly as much as I would have liked), I finally got to see Metric live.

I was not there for the earlier band, Crystal Castles, but that's ok, because I didn't know them at all, and if I have to start liking more bands, it's just going to cut into my time to listen to the bands I like now. Actually, just kidding, I think that this makes them sound like an interesting band, and maybe I should actually spend some time on MySpace. Or maybe I'll just be happy with my huge amount of music blogs and just be slightly annoyed that I missed an opening band that could have been fun. The amount of crappy openers I've seen should give me pause to rush to see a band I'd never heard of before, but then again, I've also seen Spoon, Crooked Fingers (and Eric Bachmann), The White Stripes, The Essex Green, The Black Keys, The National, Smoosh, Portastatic and some others as openers, so who knows what you're going to miss (although really, I had at least heard of almost all of those (besides The White Stripes and The Black Keys, well before they were famous, 1999 and 2003 respectively))?

There was more epileptic-fit-inducing-light-show than I was expecting, but it really added to the atmosphere, along with Emily Haines and her hair/dress, which she used to her advantage quite a bit.

Also, setlist:

Freddy
Twilight
Poster of a Girl
Dead Disco
Joyride
Empty
Standing in Line
Hustle
Combat Baby
Hooks
Handshakes
Rock Me Now
-------------
Monster Hospital
Stadium Love

A little too heavy on the new stuff for me to feel entirely happy with the setlist, as it's very difficult to bounce and sing when you don't know the songs at all. I was also shocked by how early they played Dead Disco. But they did play every song I knew I wanted to hear, so I was pretty happy. Bigger Metric fans than me were alternately slightly disappointed and extremely happy, so I guess I fall in the middle.

And it wouldn't be a concert review without me complaining about someone in the crowd. In this case, the guy was just airdrumming during early songs and constantly crept closer and closer to me until I tapped him on the shoulder during Combat Baby and yelled at him to stop sticking his head in front of mine. After a brief bit of him acting all pissed before he realized I was just trying to be heard over the awesomeness that was Combat Baby, it was all good for the rest of the set.

The Tesseract

The Tesseract was Alex Garland's follow-up to The Beach, and is about a sailor, a group of pirates, a nurse, some street children, and a psychiatrist in Manila (only the sailor was non-Filipino). Somehow this turned into a confused movie about drug runners, an assassin, a British psychologist, and a bellboy in Bangkok. Thanks, Oxide Pang. The book is a look at the interconnectedness of life and the butterfly effect, while the movie... well, it touches on the same themes, but without half the talent. Maybe if the other half of the Pang brothers were involved. Well, no. Mostly internal books with insane amounts of flashbacks, multiple looks at the same scene from different perspectives, and a look at the slums in a third-world country just won't translate well into a film. Also, a lot of characters were merged, names were changes from one character to another, completely unneeded flashy camera tricks, Matrix-style gunfights, and the story was turned into an action film. Although Garland's novel (and The Beach, for that matter) could make a good movie, with some good set pieces for action (the shootout in the hotel and subsequent chase could be utterly brilliant if well-filmed), this was pretty much doomed from the start. Making a lot of what was hinted at explicit was no good, let alone silly monologues. And man, Bangkok Dangerous was a far better film about violence in Bangkok. I am not looking forward to the remake with Nic Cage (although that is directed by the Pang Brothers, it has Charlie Yeung (from Fallen Angels, among others) as a Thai). Or the remake of The Eye with Jessica Alba.

And hey, I finally planned this out well. I finished the book on Saturday (during a delicious tekka don), and got the movie from Netflix the next chance I could. Now, if only I would rewatch The Third Man (and I even own it), so I could talk about it, since that so desperately screams for a movie-book comparison.

Brokeback Mountain, We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen, Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man, Uninvited, a crappy TV show, and the Bengals

Brokeback Mountain is the most homoerotic film I've ever seen about sheep. Sheep in the literal and metaphorical sense, as two clearly gay men are herded by society into a furtive relationship that ruins their lives and those who love them. And now that that's done, Princess Diaries breasts! And I wish I knew how to quit you! Sure, it's a touching film of forbidden love, with strong performances from Heath and Jake. Plus, there's quite a few other good performances from the women who aren't quite woman enough for the men. Certainly not the best film of the year, but dear god, is it better than Crash.

We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen begins my documentary on influential musicians released in 2005 minifest. You are not, by the way, allowed to badmouth Double Nickels on the Dime. Just take a look at the amount of far more famous people talking about how awesome they were. Sure, a lot of their songs aren't always the best, but when they do hit that, the lyrics alone are amazing. For added fun in the film, besides lots and lots of concert footage (including at the old home of the 9:30 club), you have Mike Watt, an interesting guy in his own right, talking about D. Boon, one of the most fascinating people in music. Of course, a lot of the stories weren't new, as I'd read the excellent Our Band Could Be Your Life, but it's quite enjoyable anyway. If you don't like the Minutemen, then don't watch this. I also didn't think I could handle the second disc full of live songs of various quality, so the first one was fine for me.

Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man just reminds me that I like Loudon Wainright's acting infinitely more than everything Rufus Wainright has ever done. I might even go so far as to say that he's terrible. Note that that's a might. And Rufus's version of Hallelujah can't hold a candle to Jeff Buckley's (the one in the movie is further marred by the female singers). And his version of Everybody Knows is a travesty (the original of which I love for its use in Pump up the Volume). Teddy Thompson's version of Tonight Will Be Fine was a highlight. As was Jarvis Cocker doing I Can't Forget. Admittedly, I am a fan of the song, ever since I first heard Pixies covering it. Also, you know, Pulp rocks.

Uninvited has quite likely the greatest special feature ever on a DVD. No, not a skip straight to the nudity (there's only a brief flash during a revival scene anyway). It's a 15 minute condensed version of the film. Had I just watched that, it would have been just fifteen minutes of confusion rather than two hours. Some interesting things in this cross between an ultra-religious My Own Private Idaho, Pillow Talk, and Ringu. Seriously, there's even a well. Interior Design is an important aspect of the film. Ghosts, narcolepsy, along with cannibalism (did you miss that deleted scene were Keanu Reeves eats River Phoenix in a seriously misguided attempt to gain his acting talent?) and dropping babies because they're evil. Well, that babies are like cats and that they'll eat their owners if needed. Just an utter mess of a film. Falling asleep in the middle of it after a busy Saturday didn't help.

And, for those of you who are my Netflix friends (if you aren't and want to be, let me know), you might notice I watched the first disc of The Newsroom, a Canadian TV news satire. And I didn't like it. Maybe if I had laughed once in the three episodes (I think it was three, I got bored), I might have actually watched more. But my life is far more important than watching mediocre Canadian TV. It's Degrassi or bust. Actually, there must be a good Canadian TV show besides Degrassi and You Can't Do That on Television. Taking recommendations isn't always 100%, even from people who are 85% similar on Netflix. Which should really be obvious. At least I didn't get the second disc as well.

Also, what the hell, Bengals? That defensive effort would have caused me pain had I been able to watch any of it. Well, I caught about two minutes near the end of the second half, but apparently, the Steelers-Bills blowout was more important in the District than a close exciting divisional rival.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang & L'Argent

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is the beginning of my "These two movies could not have been more different" minifest. This one is a post-modern crime thriller with gratuitous nudity (although some of it was completely needed for plot purposes, and I'm not even kidding), almost constant fourth-wall-breaking, and gratuitous violence. It's written/directed by Shane Black, writer of the Lethal Weapon films, The Monster Squad (no better film about classic monsters terrorizing a town, the wolfman being blown up by dynamite then reassembling, and of course, said wolfman having "nards"), The Last Action Hero (the supremely underrated Gov. Arnold film), The Last Boy Scout (horrendously terrifyingly bad), and The Long Kiss Goodnight, which I still want to see. This one is a film my dad would hate. All narrate-y and with almost constant winks to the audience about how smart (or stupid) characters are. I liked it, but certainly not a great film. Also, shouldn't a gag reel be, you know, funny?

L'Argent is Robert Bresson's last film, an adaptation of a Tolstoy novella, about a forged banknote and how it affects the life of everyone who touches it. It's in many ways, a completely typical film of his, with closeups of body parts, shots that signify some action while never showing it, and completely bland acting. It's not as good as Pickpocket, but certainly better than Au Hasard Balthazar. Mainly because there were no intimations of bestiality. Which doesn't make for a good film. The having of bestiality intimations doesn't make for a good film. Just making that absolutely clear.

Scoop & Un flic

Scoop is, unfortunately, even with Scarlett Johansson, Ian McShane (as a non-cursing ghost), Hugh Jackman, Charles Dance, and even a very brief cameo from Anthony Stewart Head, completely torpedoed by Woody Allen. And his script. Allen's capable of so much more, as evidenced by Match Point, but his comedies have been fairly bad for years. I am still looking forward to his next films, but there are times when I think that maybe the film won't be supremely disappointing. And then I watched Scoop. Awkward and unfunny "comedy", wasting of most of the cast, and just far too much Woody.

Un Flic is Jean-Pierre Melville's last film, and the fourth I've seen. All of them are completely awesome. From the proto-French New Wave of Bob le Flambeur, one of the coolest films ever made, to Le Samouraï, the main influence for John Woo's The Killer, to Le Cercle Rouge, one of the best heist films (after Rififi). Un Flic is translated as A Cop. The Netflix page is titled Un Flic, and the last line of the description is "Original French title: Un Flic." What the hell, Netflix? Admittedly, I never actually realized that flic was cop, not a film. Man, my French is tres terrible. The film itself is another heist film, starting with a bank heist and then a train heist that's so obviously a model train that it's funny. There's also quite a few obvious backdrops, let alone the rear-projected backgrounds for the car scenes. But that doesn't matter when you have Richard Crenna as a smooth thief/nightclub owner fighting with Alain Delon, as the titular cop, over Catherine Deneuve, one of the most beautiful women ever. Alain Delon and Catherine Deneuve in the same scene is quite a bit of hotness. The filming of the bank heist is also quite impressive with the rain and the fog. Sure the film isn't really saying very much, except that possibly Delon may be a little too married to his job and that's what makes for a good cop, but that doesn't entirely mean much.

A Story of Floating Weeds & Floating Weeds

Yasujiro Ozu started out making comedies, but in 1934, made A Story of Floating Weeds, his first film really about the dissolution of the Japanese family, which is pretty much what he made for the rest of his career. Twenty-five years later, he took a break from his longtime studio, and remade the film. It's about a traveling theater troupe who go to a small town where the leader had a son with a woman years before and now returns with a common-law wife. Both films are pretty much the same, although the earlier film was in black and white and silent, while the later film was in color and a sound film. The earlier film is also half an hour shorter, partly due to the ability to show more from a sexuality perspective, but also because of the use of dialogue allows for a more intricate plot. Not that there's that much difference. There were actual camera movements in the earlier film, though, as he still hadn't decided to remove all cinematic techniques from his bag of tricks. I somehow am not entirely sure which film is better, but they're just slightly different excellent films. Ozu came at the film from different parts of his career and life which is shown by the film being more mature, but the loss of some of the youthful energy from the earlier film is the trade-off you have to make. It's actually fairly similar to Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much. And as with that one, while the later film may be more technically skilled, I maybe slightly prefer the earlier one?

Also, I wanted to point out that I've watched my third film from the Janus box set purchased last October after Ivan the Terrible, Pt 2 and Loves of a Blonde. At this rate, I will finish watching the films in around 10 years.

Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge, Snakes on a Plane, & What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Knowing Me, Knowing You is a spoof of talk shows done by Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge, but the character was far funnier in I'm Alan Partridge, as this just seemed to be more about funny things that could happen on a talk show, rather than funny things in general. The humor of KMKYWAP (pronounced like a word) is just easier and more broad than IAP, which was far more of a character study. A frickin' hilarious character study, though. Some of the episodes were quite good, like the French one, with the clown troupe. And every episode had at least some extremely funny bits, but without the ability to see the character off-camera, you don't get nearly as involved as the later series. But how can you complain about anything that has Minnie Driver as a post-op transsexual? Actually, that may have been part of my issue with it: that so much of the humor is just homophobic jokes. I know it's meant to point out just how out of touch with reality Partridge is, but it still struck me as bothersome. The bonus disc has a couple of specials, including the Christmas special, quite possibly the funniest thing in the series. Just for Fanny and her constant puns. You know, it's just quite funny, along with the other things, like the unaired pilot, with the famous arses. The main disc is three hours of funny, but the bonus disc is only an hour or so. Which is a shame, as it was short.

Snakes on a Plane has unnecessary snakecam. Plus ridiculous dialogue, snakes, and something about mf'in' snakes on an mf'in' plane. The CGI is terrible, the plot is beyond stupid, and full of stereotypes. At least there was a lot of death. There was no reason for anyone to think this film would do well. It's so horrendously bad. Just far too tedious to be a fun watch.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is quite bad. Joan Crawford is not bad, but Bette Davis is so damn annoying in every way. I've hated her for quite a few years (combination of those eyes and just not caring for her, and that I loved All about Eve even with her should go to show just how much I loved that film), and I figured I'd try to watch this because of its reputation, but I just hated every single scene she was in. Which hurts the film, since she's in almost every scene. Also, the black person dies. Thanks Hollywood for making that so predictable.

Bad Boys, The Eye 2, & The Lovers of the Arctic Circle

Bad Boys is just one of the most misogynistic films ever made. I know, I know: he's complaining about misogyny again. But look at the film: all the female characters are either prostitutes, ballbreakers, or insane. While the guys are always far smarter than the women. Of course, the film isn't really meant to hold up to scrutiny of the sort of: why the hell are Martin Lawrence and Will Smith still on duty after the shootout at the apartment or the shootout at the club? Oh, that's right, because they're magical cops who don't have to, you know, answer to any higher law. Like their superiors. Or the amount of bullets fired that don't hit anyone. It's the Stormtrooper Syndrome. Also, I wanted to complain about how many times both one of the Titular Bad Boys (TBB) and a Non-Titular Bad Guy pointed guns at each other at the same time, and the TBB is able to not only fire first, but fire off a stupid one-liner before the NTBG is unable to come close to firing. Also, explosions are stupid. Or at least explosions for the sake of exploding things are stupid. As are cars that magically go from reverse to forwards without any chance, the fact that anyone finds Martin Lawrence funny, and that this film was remotely successful.

The Eye 2 is a sequel to one of the better Asian horror films, and although it does have the long-haired female ghost that so many others do, this one is far less about frights than about a look at life and death. But it also has Qi Shu, giving another performance worthy of her labia... I mean... Oh damn. She's quite good, and Eugenia Yuan is suitably creepy. The problem is that, although clearly a much higher budget than The Eye, the plot drags, we wonder just how everything is actually happening (how exactly did she not die after throwing herself off a building multiple times?), and just in general, it is less than the sum of its parts. Even if one of those parts sees ghosts.

The Lovers of the Arctic Circle is a great love story, filled with coincidences fulfilled, and sometimes not, a circular plotline that perfectly matches the title. It's the story of two eight-year olds who meet strange and, as they grow up, the various coincidences that so clearly point to them being right for each other. And the demon red bus that keeps getting in the way. Palindromes, scenes from just one or both perspectives at the same time, and circles are just so important. And then there's the final twist, slightly foreshadowed at the beginning and near the middle, with scenes that aren't entirely what they seem. It was written and directed by Julio Medem, who did Sex and Lucia, the best film I've ever seen with a mud-covered man becoming erect on screen. This is only slightly less sensual than that film (which is actually impressive considering the title of that film has sex in it), but it had me under its spell, acknowledging my main problem with it (the extreme coincidences necessary to further the plot), but doing it in a charming way that doesn't seem so completely random, and messes with my (and the characters') expectations just enough. Yeah, I am a sucker for the romance, but I just loved this film and then the ending hit, and I realized it was the way to end it.

X-Men: The Last Stand, Superman Returns, & Inland Empire

X-Men: The Last Stand begins my 2006 minifest, apparently. For a bit of interesting trivia (hahaha...), this was directed by Brett Ratner (one of the worst directors currently working) who was originally attached to Superman Returns at some point, but moved over to film this after Bryan Singer left this film to film Superman Returns. I wish Singer hadn't switched. Ridiculous action scenes (in the bad way), stupid plot twists, and far too much Storm. And why the hell did they make Colossus American? I always liked him since I used to play as him in the X-Men beat-em-up arcade game. Oh, wait, he was in X2, but honestly, I gave up on the series pretty soon after watching the second one. So is killing a bunch of beloved characters and the like what passes for a good film nowadays? If so, beh. I can't imagine this film making many people happy. It was insanely violent, and not good.

Superman Returns would have been far better with Kevin Smith's script. That's Tim Burton's fault. Also, this is apparently why Cyclops was killed so quickly in X-Men. Had to be the guy better than Superman. Now, there's a serious problem with Lex Luthor's plan: it makes no sense. If he starts killing everyone on earth why does he think that the military wouldn't just come in and kill him? They're not going to be affected by a Kryptonite island. Also, the overuse of religious imagery bothered me. Kate Bosworth is clearly in her young 20s, making it highly unlikely for her to have been a famous reporter five years earlier. Come on, casting director, at least pick someone of a more reasonable age. The five years later plot requires older actors, and this doesn't have them. I never thought I'd praise the earlier Superman as a restrained film, but it's better than this overlong film.

Inland Empire may be Lynch's greatest film ever. Alternately, and more accurately, it's the film where Lynch went off the deep end. I didn't understand much of anything. The Polish scenes and all the other things may have made a somewhat reasonable film if they were just a bunch of shorts, but three hours of bizarre, with dancing to The Locomotion and At Last. Along with far too many closeups and dark. Ugh. You might like it, but only if you want to spend three hours being extremely confused.

The Beach & The President's Last Bang

The Beach is the Alex Garland novel that the pretty disliked film directed by Danny Boyle with Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda Swinton, Virginie Ledoyen, and Robert Carlyle was based on. Now, I am not nearly as anti-the film as a lot of other people I know. However, after reading the book, I can certainly see why others dislike it. The extra relationships just are completely unnecessary. The story of a British tourist who is left a map by a suicide in a Thai hotel and then goes to find a secluded beach with two beautiful French people, smokes an insane amount of pot, fishes with harpoons, and then goes insane somehow actually spoke to me. Even though I've never done any of those things. As much as I have always wanted to. I enjoyed the book as it was very much, and, as an admitted purist and very protective of media I love, I now dislike the movie more, but I would need to see it again to know just how much more I disliked it. And I'm not sure I want to spend the time on that, when I could watch something else. It will happen at some point, when it's on a channel I have.

The President's Last Bang made two of the three other people I watched it with fall asleep. Well, actually all of them fell asleep at some point. I don't know if that has something to do with the day we'd had or what, but I liked it a lot. Not quite as good as I was expecting, and I thought it was directed by a different guy. The movie did start with a crawl basically explaining the parts of Korean history relevant to the film, which was helpful. And then came the first actual shots of the film, at a pool, with people yelling at a few girls to take their tops off, which they do. That's the only female nudity for the rest of the film, so if you wanted, you could just watch the first couple minutes. The rest of the film is a mordantly funny film about a failed coup attempt in 1979 that appears to have been caused by making fun of the director of the Korean CIA. It's one of the things in the film along with the singing of enka songs that seems to possibly have been rumors rather than actual fact. Then again, a movie about an assassination of a dictator where all involved are either dead or have lots of reasons to lie is certainly not going to be the truth. There was one scene I wanted to mention, as it was a long tracking shot showing the fallout of the assassination going from room to room shot from above showing the dead. It's one of those scenes that just sticks out as extremely impressive.

Local Hero, Fateless, & Flushed Away

Local Hero is a little film about a big oil company wanting to buy a little Scottish fishing village to put up an oil refinery. It's fitfully funny, but it's more of a character study of the oil company representative falling under the spell of the town. There is nothing at all wrong with the film, and that's actually a charm. Everything it sets out to do it does. Sure, some of the special effects were obvious, but it's a fairly low budget, early 80s film. The village does seem like quite the place to live in, if you want everyone to know your business.

Fateless is, apparently, the most expensive Hungarian film of all time, about a 14 year old going through the Holocaust. So now you know why I watched it. Because, as a Jew, I have to watch and cry at everything Holocaust related. I failed in this case. No crying. In fact, I got quite a bit annoyed. What a whiny bitch, and how the hell could he just not listen to people who know better? And, at the end, when he says there were happy times in the concentration camps, I was wondering just where the hell those were? I do not recall anything happy happening in camp, unless you count horrible knee abscesses, lice, beatings, not enough food, and hard work. Seriously, I would have liked it more if it had shown these "happy" times. Otherwise, it was a standard long tale of survival against the odds. Just like every other Holocaust film ever made, except for the crap ones like Life Is Beautiful. I will never forgive the Academy for that. Well, there are a lot of things that the Academy has gotten wrong over the years, but giving two Oscars to Roberto Benigni is unconscionable. As is having Daniel Craig play an American soldier. What the hell, Hungary?

Flushed Away is the first CGI Aardman Animations film, and as such, it works well, and is occasionally funny, but it suffers immensely from not having nearly the heart and humor of the other Aardman films. The water and fur wasn't that good, and the mice also didn't have enough hair. Also, there was far too much scoring for a soccer match. Those brief bits of soccer on screen bothered me far more than they should have, especially since it was just about making fun of it. The pop-culture references were also only occasionally clever, something that makes the film dated even as it should have been better. Shame.